The Greengage Summer (1958), 1962 Pan paperback edition. 187 pages
Born in Sussex, England, Godden grew up with her three sisters in Narayanganj, then part of colonial India. She returned to the United Kingdom with her sisters in her early 20s, training as a dance teacher. She went to Calcutta in 1930 to start a dance school for English and Indian children. Godden ran the school for 20 years with the help of her sister Nancy. During this time she published her first best-seller, Black Narcissus (1939).
Following an unhappy marriage of 8 years, she moved with her two daughters to Kashmir. Remarrying again in 1949, she returned to the United Kingdom to concentrate on writing.
Later on, Godden converted to Roman Catholicism and a number of her books began to deal with the subject of women in religious communities. In books such as Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy and In This House of Brede she acutely examined the balance between the mystical aspects of religion and the submission of the individual to the spiritual discipline. She retired to Moniaive in Dumfriesshire in her 70s. She was appointed OBE in 1993. Rumer Godden died at the age of 90 on November 81998. Several of her works were co-written by her sister, Jon Godden, who wrote several novels on her own.
Godden evokes the atmosphere of India through all the senses: her writing is vivid with detail of smells, textures, light, flowers, noises and tactile experiences. Her books for children, especially her several doll stories, convincingly convey the secret thoughts and aspirations of childhood.
1939 Black Narcissus, her first book to be made into a film of the same name in 1947 - a story about the disorientation of European nuns in India. A radio adaptation was broadcast in 2008.[1]
1942 Breakfast with the Nikolides
1946 The River, made into a film in 1951 directed by Jean Renoir, and she collaborated on the screenplay for the film
1966 Two Under the Indian Sun (written with Jon Godden)
1968 Gone: A Thread of Stories (written with Jon Godden)
1968 A Letter to the World
1968 Mrs. Manders' Cook Book
1968 Swans and Turtles
1969 Fugue in Time
1969 In This House of Brede, follows Philippa (a cloistered Benedictine nun in the abbey of Brede in Sussex) through her first years in the abbey and not only her, but many of the other nuns who live there as well; made into a TV movie staring Diana Rigg
1972 Shiva's Pigeons (written with Jon Godden)
1975 The Peacock Spring, adapted for television in 1995
1977 Butterfly Lions
1980 Gulbadan: Portrait of a Rose Princess At the Mughal Court
1980 Take Three Tenses: A Fugue in Time
1979 Five For Sorrow, Ten For Joy
1981 The Dark Horse
1984 Thursday's Children
1985 The Tale of the Tales: Beatrix Potter Ballet
1987 A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep, an autobiography
1989 A House with Four Rooms, an autobiography
1989 Indian Dust (written with Jon Godden)
1990 Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love: Stories (written with Jon Godden)
1991 Coromandel Sea Change
1992 Great Grandfather's House
1994 Pippa Passes
1996 Premlata and the Festival of Lights
1996 Cockcrow to Starlight: A Day Full of Poetry
1996 A Pocket Book of Spiritual Poems
1997 Cromartie vs. the God Shiva, her last novel
Children's Books
1947 The Doll's House, a children's book - a story about a brave 100-year old Dutch doll, her family, their Victorian dollhouse home, and the two little English girls to whom they belong
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